Edmonton most dangerous city to drive In

[craiger]

A very scary article in today's Sun:

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmo...45506-sun.html

This is what we get from 30 years of Torie rule.

- 2nd largest murder capital of Canada

- 1st in most dangerous roads to drive

What 30 years of Torie power has drove this Capital city of alberta into the ground.

Is this what you want to happen to your country?

Our infastructure is crumbling cutts are made to our scoial programs, housing has doubled, Rapid inflation.

As citizens and taxpayers we have not benefited from Torie rule one bit. over heated employment has caused disasters on our homes, contractors are paying rediculous wages and we spend more money bringing in unqualified foreign workers who further the burden on our already failed infustructure. Growth has been disasterous for us albertans.

And the fact our largest industry the oilsands is scraping top soil to ship raw bitumen and jobs out of the country is good for no taxpaying citizen, we are looking at our commitment to reclaim our lands and are finding we have dug a hole we cannot afford .,what we are leaving for our future generations is a toxic pit of waste no industry or people will ever strive in again. Reminds me of those businesses corperations like to run into the ground.

[kimmy]

A very scary article in today's Sun:

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmo...45506-sun.html

This is what we get from 30 years of Torie rule.

- 2nd largest murder capital of Canada

- 1st in most dangerous roads to drive

The article.

The provincial government doesn't design roads. Calgary has had the same provincial government as Edmonton and yet was ranked 3rd best in the survey you cite.

Maybe instead of the Tories you should be blaming 20 years of dismal city planning. Bill Smith's short-sighted nickel-and dime thinking, and Jan Reimer's anti-growth, anti-traffic mentality are the root of the problem.

What 30 years of Torie power has drove this Capital city of alberta into the ground.

Is this what you want to happen to your country?

Our infastructure is crumbling cutts are made to our scoial programs, housing has doubled, Rapid inflation.

As citizens and taxpayers we have not benefited from Torie rule one bit. over heated employment has caused disasters on our homes, contractors are paying rediculous wages and we spend more money bringing in unqualified foreign workers who further the burden on our already failed infustructure. Growth has been disasterous for us albertans.

And the fact our largest industry the oilsands is scraping top soil to ship raw bitumen and jobs out of the country is good for no taxpaying citizen, we are looking at our commitment to reclaim our lands and are finding we have dug a hole we cannot afford .,what we are leaving for our future generations is a toxic pit of waste no industry or people will ever strive in again. Reminds me of those businesses corperations like to run into the ground.

It always comes back to those darn Chinamen workers with you, doesn't it.

-k

[craiger]

The article.

The provincial government doesn't design roads. Calgary has had the same provincial government as Edmonton and yet was ranked 3rd best in the survey you cite.

Maybe instead of the Tories you should be blaming 20 years of dismal city planning. Bill Smith's short-sighted nickel-and dime thinking, and Jan Reimer's anti-growth, anti-traffic mentality are the root of the problem.

It always comes back to those darn Chinamen workers with you, doesn't it.

-k

learn to read. not once did I mention Chinamen.

I lived in Edmonton when Smith and Reimer ran this city and it was awsome! we did not experience these problems we now have. They knew how to manage growth and the people benefited.

To also think a city can run on just municipal funding is ludacris takes involvement from the provincial governmet to make any great city work.

Edited November 8, 2008 by craiger

[kimmy]

learn to read. not once did I mention Chinamen.

We've all read your posts enough to recognize complaining about those darned "unqualified foreign workers" as a recurrent theme. You didn't specify the Chinese in particular this time, which I guess is a step in the right direction.

I lived in Edmonton when Smith and Reimer ran this city and it was awsome! we did not experience these problems we now have. They knew how to manage growth and the people benefited.

The city was able to manage growth effectively during Reimer's time in office because there wasn't any growth.

Bill Smith cheaped out on infrastructure during his time in office. He spent the bare minimum (and usually less) to keep the potholes filled, and crowed about how fiscally responsible he was. The city was desperately behind the curve on infrastructure even before the boom really hit. Together, he and Reimer kept the city's infrastructure stagnant and completely unprepared for what came.

To also think a city can run on just municipal funding is ludacris takes involvement from the provincial governmet to make any great city work.

As your article mentions, Calgary somehow managed to do a whole lot better. Maybe the reason for that is that Calgary had forward-thinking mayors who were happy about entering into 75%/25% cost-shared projects with the provincial government, instead of taking a nickel-and-dime approach and bragging about how thrifty they were.

-k

[fellowtraveller]

Neither of you are correct. The issue of infrastructure in the city comes from the actions of Mayor Lawrence Decore. Aft6er the crash of the early Eighties, Decore impelented a program of strict debt control, the main plank of which was a bylaw that forced the city to restrict the amount of annual operating expenditures dedicated to interest to a small and specific percentgae. This effectively limited the ability of the city to borrow money for projects, something city councils everywhere are very fond of doing - borrowing too much for pet projects.

The problem is that by the mid ninetyies the city was growing again- and there was still no borrowing power available to address the situation. It was repealed, but now the city is catching up, and you'd know if you'd actually been to Edmnonton recently that the amount of infrastructure now and for the foreseeable future is immense. Freeways, roads, bridges, sewer mains, major light rail system construction- many, many billions and all happening right now.

Oh, and th oilsands are not teaering up topsoil, I suspect this joker has never been there. It is boreal forest, thin stands of crap trees that are not useful for anything. There is no forest industry, no farmland. Never was, never will be, because the soil is almost nonexistent.

Edited November 10, 2008 by fellowtraveller

[kimmy]

Neither of you are correct. The issue of infrastructure in the city comes from the actions of Mayor Lawrence Decore. Aft6er the crash of the early Eighties, Decore impliented a program of strict debt control, the main plank of which was a bylaw that forced the city to restrict the amount of annual operating expenditures dedicated to interest to a small and specific percentgae. This effectively limited the ability of the city to borrow money for projects, something city councils everywhere are very fond of doing - borrowing too much for pet projects.

The problem is that by the mid ninetyies the city was growing again- and there was still no borrowing power available to address the situation. It was repealed, but now the city is catching up, and you'd know if you'd actually been to Edmnonton recently that the amount of infrastructure now and for the foreseeable future is immense. Freeways, roads, bridges, sewer mains, major light rail system construction- many, many billions and all happening right now.

Thanks for clarifying the history of the issue. Lawrence Decore was well before my time. However, I'm old enough to remember some of the complaints about city planning during Reimer's time in office. One that always made dad furious was that the 114th street corridor from Southgate to the University was so badly congested, and when Reimer spent a bunch of money to upgrade 114th street, it didn't do anything to reduce traffic congestion, it just added flowers and bricks and heritage-style street lamps.

I have not lived in Edmonton for almost 2 years, but I do know that before I left, a lot of major capital projects were being announced, and some had already been completed. And in fairness to Bill Smith, some of the major projects had been initiated during his time in office. The south-to-west-to-north portion of the Anthony Henday project had just been completed before I moved away.

I understand the 23rd Ave/QE2 interchange is now well underway. That is, as I understand it, one of the worst intersections for collisions, one that contributes highly to the crash statistics that Craiger mentioned.

Gateway Boulevard, as a "gateway" to the city, kind of sucks. Once you get past 51st Ave, you get all those run down little shops, with cars turning in and out of the parking lot, right off of the main highway without even a turning lane. But "Gateway Boulevard" isn't really a gateway; if you're going north on Gateway past 51st Ave as you head into Edmonton, you probably missed your turn-off. Keep going straight on Gateway, and you literally drive off a cliff when you get to the river valley. It's typical of Edmonton, in the sense that roads were not planned with any idea of flow or where people actually wanted to go, it seems like they just built straight lines, with the idea that people would go where they wished. And if a lot of people start taking one particular route, just raise the speed limit and maybe build some turning lanes at big intersections. (Is Stony Plain Road the worst example of this kind of thinking?)

It is unfortunate that the city has decades of bad planning to overcome. However, I think that it has sunk in over the past several years that Edmonton is a big city whether they like it or not, and that it has to be built and managed accordingly.

-k

[kengs333]

And's it's like this despite the fact that kimmy hasn't lived there for the last two years? Interesting...

[kimmy]

And's it's like this despite the fact that kimmy hasn't lived there for the last two years? Interesting...

I have chosen to bring progress and achievement to another community. Already great things have been achieved here since my arrival.

-k

[kengs333]

I have chosen to bring progress and achievement to another community. Already great things have been achieved here since my arrival.

-k

Hopefully that would be south of the 49th...

[geoffrey]

If Calgary is 3rd safest and Montreal 2nd, we are in serious trouble as a country of drivers.

[Mr.Canada]

It's time for immigration reform in order to help curb the crime in our cities. It's also time to dismantle the social housing network as a failed experiment.

Edited November 24, 2008 by Mr.Canada

[fellowtraveller]

It's time for immigration reform in order to help curb the crime in our cities. It's also time to dismantle the social housing network as a failed experiment.

Speak for yourself. Immigrants are the lifeblood of my Canada and are welcome in my country and in my home.

Social housing is a provincial/municpal responsibilyt. Nothing stops any province from dismantling or building whatever they choose.

Kimmy, you would hardly recognize the city now.... More accurately , it is so screwed up by major infrastriucture projects you cannot get anywhere to see the city. The South Side in particular is a bog, with major projects on 23rd /Gateway, 114th street all the way from 23rd Ave to the University, endless building around the Uni Hospital and campus, major work on the Quesnel bridge area.........and elsewhere the massive $1.4 billion northern loop of the Henday freeway.

You are right that the river valley provides a major traffic problem, but so far the City has avoided paving the entire thing like Calgary, and left the beauty of an enormous urban park.

It is unfortunate that the city has decades of bad planning to overcome. However, I think that it has sunk in over the past several years that Edmonton is a big city whether they like it or not, and that it has to be built and managed accordingly.

As I said , there is a very positive flip side to what you term bad planning....and that is a relatively low level of civic debt, and relatibvely low proerty taxes. And the traffic is not so bad, consdiering and comparing- so the road system is managing...... The most annoying daily thing is the battle lost on potholes......

[kimmy]

I was able to return to Edmonton for Christmas, and was quite impressed by all of the projects underway. It should be well worth the temporary inconvenience of the construction.

-k

[the janitor]

Edmonton had no growth under Jan Reimer becuase the entire nation was in the toilet under Mulroney.

Calgary does better than Edmonton because Calgary is a bastion of provincial Tory support.

I've lived in Edmonton under Reimer, Bill Smith and Stephen Mandel. Mandel is by far the worst. The taxes are skyrocketing, the snow doesn't get cleared, the police service moral is at an all time low and all city council does is chisel and make excuses. On the upside the LRT has been extended. It's only about 20 years overdue, but at least it now runs ohhh, at least another 20 or 30 feet south from where it stopped before.

It's a second class city council and Edmonton is a second rate city. Why anyone voted for them a second time is beyond me.

Ironically, Sherwood PArk and St Albert -- both cities having about a tenth of Edmonton's population -- have better services than Edmonton does. Figure that one out if it isn't incompetence on the part of Edmonton's mayor and council.

[fellowtraveller]

Ironically, Sherwood PArk and St Albert -- both cities having about a tenth of Edmonton's population -- have better services than Edmonton does. Figure that one out if it isn't incompetence on the part of Edmonton's mayor and council.

There are clear and easily understood reasons for that.... St Albert has a tax base badly skewed toward residential-only, and as a resul;t has very high taxes compared to Edmonton. They do provide good services, but residents pay heavily for them.

Sherwood Park has low taxes, the lowest in the region, but also has the massive advantage of having all those refineries on the western edge of Strathcona county - it is an advantage they guard zealously.